Category Archives: Solutions to Homelessness

Saving Money with a Home

Homelessness, Solutions to Homelessness

It actually saves the city money when they work together with the homeless to find a place to live. This is a really interesting fact that I learned while researching a variety of articles on homelessness. There have been a number of studies that have shown this fact, from ones in Florida, Colorado, and etc., but this one comes from Charlotte, North Carolina, where researchers at the University of North Carolina Charlotte studied a new apartment complex that was for homeless people.

This complex opened in 2012 starting with 85 units. The rules for the place are that each resident has to pay thirty percent of their income towards rent. The income ranges from any money from a job to benefits from the government. The rest of the costs are covered by a combination of local and federal government grants and private donors. In the first year, taxpayers save about $1.8 million because of two areas that had less a burden of homeless people which were health care and incarceration. With this housing complex being open, the residents visited the emergency room 447 fewer times than in past years. Also they were arrested 78 percent less during that first year as well. Because of the large amount of success that the housing complex was having, the Charlotte City Council approved about $1 million to have the Moore Place expand to 120 units.

For more information and links to the other city’s studies, click this link

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2014/03/24/3418140/charlotte-homeless-study/

Solving Homelessness or the Homeless Blemish?

Homelessness, How we should treat each other, News link, Reflections on our Reading, Solutions to Homelessness

There is a “dash movement taking place in Santa Cruz, California. According to the Santa Cruz Sentinel article, “’Dash’ deployed for solving Santa Cruz Country Homelessness”,  the multi-agency cooperative 180/180 Initiative has a goal of offering “180 people a 180 degree life change” by a deadline of July 1st. A secondary goal was also created to place 25 of the city’s most visible homeless people, along with a group of 12 from Watsonville, on a course towards permanent supportive housing within 100 days by May 7th.  The 100-day dash plan is a specialized tool that gives partnering agencies and officials who wouldn’t usually get involved a finite timeline and achievable goal.

 

Although this project sounds promising, with 8 people currently being helped and two already housed in Watsonville, there seems to be the same lingering goal to get the chronically homeless away from the downtown commercial areas where they reside. Homeless Services Center Executive Director Monica Martinez is even quoted in the article saying “Everybody has their reason why (they want to get the homeless off the streets), but we all agree we want it to happen.” This reminds me of Wasserman and Clair’s book  At Home on the Street: People, Poverty, and a Hidden Culture of Homelessness, and how their participants discussed how the programs shouldn’t be pushed upon them and that they should be choices. My interpretation of this article seems as if this plan isn’t entirely for the homeless’ best interest, but to remove them from living in commercial areas where their presence isn’t wanted, which was an issue also raised in the book. These chronically homeless people they are “helping” are not being seen as people, but as a blemish on the downtowns of Santa Cruz and Watsonville. As much as this would like help out the homeless community, I fear that it is not enough to solve the chronic problem.

“Keep your coins, I want change”

About being poor, Homelessness, Reflections on our Reading, Solutions to Homelessness

“Keep your coins, I want change”. This is something that truly stuck out to me during one of the presentations last week. This statement speaks great volumes about the needs of the homeless. Coins do not do anything, but change does. Between this and our conversations in class, I was able to recognize the resources that would benefit the homeless. Through various organizations, help centers are offered to teach life skills to those who are homeless. There resources are aiming to provided life lessons, skills, and goals to make a lasting impact.  It related to the metaphor: “If you give a man a fish you feed him once, but if you teach a man how to fish, you feed him for a life time”. This is the kind of action that needs to be taken.

Having resources such as resume building, job skill training, and educational classes we are offering needy people the chance to have a life that they are in need of. I feel this needs to go beyond local non profit organizations and have a bigger impact within the government. A great population of our country is homeless, and sometimes it seems like many options are not put into full force to make a lasting impact. We have learned a lot about how one person can make a difference with their voice, but actions are louder than words. I hope to find out more information, especially from my internship, and see exactly what they are doing within these resources and seeing the lasting impact that they have on people finding jobs and getting off of the streets.

The Real Causes of Homelessness

About being poor, Causes of Homelessness, Government programs, Homelessness, People, Portraits of Homeless, Poverty, Solutions to Homelessness

I found this story written by Mollie Lowery that hit on many of the points we have been making in class about what truly causes homelessness. Lowery writes the story of a chronically homeless woman named Lourdes. This story is powerful in pointing out the many different flaws of our current system and the ways in which we treat the homeless. I see a lot of the arguments Vincent Lyon-Callo makes in his book  Inequality, Poverty, And Neoliberal Governance: Activist Ethnography in the Homeless Sheltering Industry (purchase on Amazon) within Lourdes’ story. One of these arguments is that our society medicalizes homelessness. The best way I can describe this is by pulling a quote from Lowery’s story of getting Lourdes back into housing: “I began each day with reassurances that if Lourdes got in the car with me, I wouldn’t take her to a mental hospital. Such fear and distrust do not emanate from some genetic pathology. It comes from years of being marginalized, excluded, exposed and traumatized.” Both Lyon-Callo and Lowery emphasize the very important fact that the systems that we have in place to “help” homeless people place the blame on personal attributes, rather than acknowledging that the problem comes from these systems that create inequalities.  Though we have many systems in place to try to help the ever-growing number of homeless, Lowery stresses that “a far more humane, effective — and cheaper — strategy would be to prevent people like Lourdes from winding up homeless in the first place.” Rather than putting a band-aid on the problem, we need to focus on preventing the problem from ever happening. And this involves seeing the true cause of homelessness instead of focusing on “individual pathologies and solutions.”

Reflection on Martha Burt’s “Strategies for Reducing Street Homelessness”

Homelessness, Reflections on our Reading, Solutions to Homelessness

After reading Strategies for Reducing Chronic Street Homelessness by Martha Burt I have a better understanding of what we, as a community should do to lower the number of homeless.  This report goes through and thoroughly discusses steps to take in order to reduce homelessness. Some questions asked to make sure that communities are trying to reduce their number of homeless. For example, does the community have a long-term plan, is there an approach implemented, how is the approach funded, does implementation include efforts of community members? These questions enhance the information that the HUD is attempting to understand.

The HUD believes that if they can receive information to these questions they will better understand what needs to be done in each community to reduce chronic homelessness. The answer to each of these questions will determine what the community can do to lower their number of homeless people. If a community is serious about these steps and focuses on these questions they will most likely reduce their community’s chronic homelessness.

There were seven communities studied in this project where many community members were interviewed. During this study they found five key elements that were prevalent in each community, which explained their chronic street homelessness. One key element was that across the board there was a shift in the goals of homeless assistance programs. I believe this should be the main concern of the HUD. The old goals of the assistance programs were to provide transitional housing and emergency shelters, with no real intention of ending homelessness. The paradigm shift has happened in several of the communities studied, which is more of a focus on ending homelessness by getting others involved to help such as businesses and public agencies.

This report helps us to see what needs to be accomplished to get closer to ending chronic street homelessness. It displays communities who are working in the right direction and also communities that need to put in more effort.

Link to reading : http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/1000775.pdf

Promoting Dignity

About being poor, How we should treat each other, Local organizations, Organizations, Solutions to Homelessness

            I have been interning a Family Services center, an agency dedicated to offering support to low-income and homeless families with the end goal of leading them towards self-sufficiency. Family services depends on the support of organizations and leaders to improve the lives of those at or below the poverty line, which in turn strengthens the community as a whole.

             I began my work in the distribution center. The labor of this work can be grueling at times but it made me appreciate the care that’s put into this process. Staff members believe in giving clients items that they would be proud to own. Items are cleaned, disinfected, and made presentable. Goods that don’t meet these expectations are put into bags and placed where individuals can grab them. Absolutely nothing donated is wasted.

            I’ve spent time in the clothing center. Clients come in to this room and are given fifteen minutes to browse clothing options. It’s an opportunity for them to receive any special needs items such as blankets, pillows, towels, or cooking utensils. Clothes are folded, counted, recorded, and bagged in regular shopping bags. Clients are able to come in, gain access to clean clothes and choose what fits their needs, including work appropriate attire that will enable them to search for employment.

            The food pantry is set up very similarly to a grocery store, with aisles of foods. Families are given access to fresh fruits and vegetables, and good sources of protein and vitamins. They fill grocery bags with food items to meet the family’s needs. When they leave, the items are in grocery bags so there would be no way to detect that they had gotten these food items from anywhere but the grocery store. This is another way that they are treated with dignity.

            I have been volunteering in the child care center which is a very important feature of Family Services. It allows parents the time to go to classes and counseling while knowing that their children are safely being cared for. On a usual day, children are dropped off and signed in by parents and they begin their school homework projects that they have. The volunteers in this area spend a lot of time and efforts helping the children understand and complete their homework and any special projects that they have to prevent them from falling behind in school.

            Going forward, I hope to gain much more insight into some of the services that I am less familiar with. I am aware that this organization offers a wide variety of services such as resume building, job assistance, and computer skills training, I’m not fully knowledgeable of the specifics of these services. I hope to gain insight in these classes and the feedback of the clients.

          The overall message of this organization is to promote the dignity of all people, a concept that we have identified in class as imperative. While it’s overwhelming to consider the status of homelessness, this experience has made me see the great impact that a single person can make. Family Services was established over one hundred years ago and was built on the importance of community members volunteering by donating time, money, and resources. Each and every individual who has volunteered here has played a role in ensuring that it is able to keep going.

Taking Action

About being poor, Government programs, News link, Solutions to Homelessness

As we transition into the part of the semester in which the underlying theme is about what  the government is doing about the homeless population, I found an article which shows how taking one step can make a huge impact. On March 8th, The Los Angeles Times published an article about having a safe space for homeless people. In Sonoma County, supervisors lifted the ban of people sleeping in their cars. They realized that for some people, living in their cars is their only option. They made a Safe Parking Program that allowed homeless people the opportunity to park their car in a designated lot and could keep their cars there overnight.

This program provides a safe space for homeless people. One man described it as “heavenly” and was grateful for this safe space. While reading, I was asking myself why is this just happening now? This is a great program that should have been brought about sooner. One woman states “A man walked up to me and his entire face and beard was covered in frost”. This just shows how action needed to be taken. It is said that four men died from freezing to death, which is another situation that should not have happened. By lifting this ban and allowing this safe space program, homeless people not only feel safe, they also being taken out of bad weather conditions that they would have to face if they were sleeping outdoors.

After reading this article, I am confident in some of the steps our government is taking towards helping homeless people. If more ideas and solutions like this were put into action, homeless people would be given a better outcome.

Safe Space Program provided these people with a place to park their car and sleep overnight

http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-santa-rosa-homeless-parking-20140309,0,3081428.story#ixzz2vbYjWG6y

 

Raising the Wage

Homelessness, Poverty, Solutions to Homelessness

One of the topics we were discussing about in class was the minimum wage, when our professor mentioned how there is a man who is going to put forth a vote on the ballot this November for the people to increase the minimum wage for California. This actually interested me quite a bit so I decided to do a bit of research to figure out more information on this subject. I found an article online that tells all about the man behind this measure and why he believes it will be a good idea for the wage to increase.

Behind the measure is a man named Ron Unz. His background is that he is a conservative man who was a software developer, a theoretical physicist from Harvard, and a publisher of the American Conservative magazine. What he wants to put into an effect is establishing the minimum wage at $12 dollars an hour, and to do this he wants to have the people vote on it issue on the ballot this November. He is also doing a great job at convincing both liberals and conservatives to back this issue. Its very interesting to be hearing a conservative talking about and having the position of wanting the wage increased, but his idea behind it has to do with logic.

He takes the standpoint of saying if businesses pay their low wage employees more, it will be taking away from what the taxpayers assist to the low-income people through food stamps, housing aid, Medicaid, etc. Our state has such a high cost of living and if we were to increase the minimum wage to $12 it would essentially be about $9.25 at the federal level if converted for living expense. This would pull a tremendous amount of people out of poverty and our working families would get about $15 billion per year. Also money would be saved for the taxpayers from not paying as much to the programs that assist the poor people. He also has an argument for the rich who might argue against his wanting to raise the wages. Unz says investing $2 million today would raise the annual incomes of low-wage workers by $15 billion. That is a tremendous increase.

I am really interested on how this will all play out and even just with the people involved in agreeing for this cause. I will definitely continue on watching what happens now and in November.

For more information check out this website

California’s Coming Minimum Wage Restoration


or just search around about this topic online

Tiny Houses for the Homeless

Causes of Homelessness, Homelessness, Organizations, Related topics, Solutions to Homelessness, Solutions to Poverty

In class during the past week, we began looking at the major and minor causes of homelessness today in comparison to what they have previously been. We found that decline in public assistance, mental illness, domestic violence, and lack of affordable housing were just a few of the main causes of homelessness today. While it was easy to find the top causes of homelessness and poverty, it was quite problematic to try to brainstorm strategies and solutions to alleviate these problems. It can become overwhelming because there are so many of these issues that choosing which to tackle first can be difficult.

While continuing my research on the different ways that non-profit organizations and individuals are working towards solving these wide array of problems, I came across a recent article titled Tiny Houses for the Homeless: An Affordable Solution Catches On, the content of which is exactly what it sounds like. In several cities around the country, these villages of tiny, low-budget houses are being built to offer support to the homeless. These small communities offer safe places for the homeless to sleep, maintain hygiene, and form bonds with one another.

As for the costs of this effort, the article states that  “many of the building materials were donated, and all of the labor was done in a massive volunteer effort” (Lundahl 2014). In the article, the author discusses how even though the cost of each of these tiny houses can be around $10,000, the overall costs of these buildings is much lower than the alternative route of building apartment housing for these individuals. The cost-effectiveness of this plan is what is catching the eye of other city officials who are seeing the affordability and advantages to investing in these communities, which in the end will save them money.

After reading this article, I feel that this would be a good way to house the homeless and offer up a solution to the problem of the lack of affordable housing. Learning in our class that while the homeless population increases, the amount of low-income housing has actually decreased is very shocking and confusing. If there were more of these small communities of low-budget housing available in more cities, the effect would be dramatic. Clearly this is just one solution to one problem that the homeless are facing, but any efforts to push for these tiny houses would make an enormous impact of the lives of these homeless.

 

* http://truth-out.org/news/item/22050-tiny-houses-for-the-homeless-an-affordable-solution-catches-on

How Utah Will Soon End Chronic Homelessness: A First Step?

Causes of Homelessness, Causes of Poverty, Homelessness, Solutions to Homelessness, Solutions to Poverty, Uncategorized

Our Data Exercise #3 assignment pushed my level of being overwhelmed to a new height. When we ended class on Thursday with thinking about ways to possibly end these causes, I had no idea where to start or even which one to choose. Therefore, I decided to focus this week’s blog on what others are doing to end these causes. Affordable housing was one of the most common causes that were seen from Jenck’s 1980s research and the class’ updated research.
In focusing on affordable housing, a 2011 article on The Huffington Post surfaced and discussed How Utah Will Soon End Chronic Homelessness. The state of Utah has had a 26 percent drop in homelessness since 2010 and credited it to its “Ten-Year Strategic Action Plan to End Chronic Homelessness”. According to this plan, Utah will reach its goal of eliminating chronic poverty by 2014 by implementing Housingworks programs. With the Housingworks programs, the state is giving the homeless access to their own apartments that tenants will pay 30 percent of their state-facilitated income for rent, so the housing isn’t freely given. The state will also provide job training and social services to assist in keeping a job and social life. Huffington Post Blogger Anna Bahr also reports that Utah’s homelessness is at a four year low, as of 2011.
It seems that this plan had been showing progress and would help with other causes of homelessness besides just affordable housing. Does this mean we cannot just focus on eliminating one cause at a time? That these causes of homelessness are too related? In further research to see how Utah’s plan has either been successful or unsuccessful, my research fell flat. But is Utah’s plan the first step to ending these causes?